What do we want/need for the audience to know?
The major purpose of any presentation is to convey a body of information to the intended audience. Last week we explored the importance of meeting the information needs of the audience. This opens the door and creates the opportunity to convey the message(s) that is/are the reason for the presentation. In order to do this effectively we need to be very clear about what those messages are.
As we think about the choice of diagrams we need to ask ourselves, “Why are we here? What do we need to communicate to the audience?” We understand who they are and how they communicate (see the blog post regarding the first question “who is the audience?”) We have learned as much as we can about what they want to know. Now we need to think carefully about what we want to convey to them.
We will package this information with the information they want. Some (much?) of what they want may be the same as what we want them to know. Once we have a clear picture of this body of information we can choose the vehicles to convey it to the audience.
There are a number of questions to be answered. Is the information about behavior or the physical architecture? Are we concerned with sequencing? Is time a part of what we need to say? Are we concerned with behavioral control constructs? Do we need to portray triggers and data stores? The answers to these and the many questions like them form a description of the set of diagrams that we will use to present the information in its most understandable form.
Next week: Closing Comments
Other Posts in “The View From Here” Series
